Yorkshire nostalgia: Badge of Richard III - last of the Plantagenets

This silver gilt livery bade is in the form of a boar and faces to the left. It was a symbol of Richard III and was discovered in 2010 in Stillingfleet, North Yorkshire.

On its reverse side, it has a loop in the centre, for attaching it to clothing.

Richard III was known to distribute boar badges - he handed out 13,000 made of cloth at his coronation and at the installation of his son Edward as Prince of Wales.

Livery badges, as they were known, were important symbols of political affiliation, produced, in lead, silver and silder copper and coupd be or pinned to the best of a hat. Badges in precious metal would have been given to Richard more important supporters.

Richard III (1452-1485) ruled for just two years, from 1483 until his death at the age of 32 in the Battle of Bosworth Field.

He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty.

He was part of the Medieval kings of England, which began with William the Conqueror in 1066. All aspects of life were changed by the newcomers, from religion to architecture. If the period began with William, it ended with Richard III.

The Plantagenets hailed from France. The Battle of Bosworth Field was one of the final skirmishes in the War of the Roses and saw the end of Richard’s dynasty and the beginning of the reign of the Tudors, with Henry VII, who was the last monarch of England to win the throne on the battlefield. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III and was successful in restoring the power and stability.